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New Summerland Suburb

We were surprised on a June 1 flight to notice what seems to be a new "suburb" growing on the Summerland bluff. It was below the southbound 101 Summerland exit and above the railroad tracks. There seem to be three main dwelling areas, with the one on the left (1st pic) apparently built right into the bluff with a drain system. The 2nd pic shows an area on the right, and the 3rd pic shows all 3 from beach to freeway and possibly other areas in railroad culverts. Some questions come up for me. Could any of this cause erosion or public health problems? What more can be done to provide affordable housing for workers, and safe shelter for the homeless? Does anyone on Edhat have ideas or answers?

11 Comments

From an edhat reader:
"For more (historical) images of John Wiley's new "suburb" see http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?image=200800924&mode=sequential&flags=0&year=2008
and you can select photos from various years. Download Image #201308367 zoom in and you'll see somebody has opened up a "mineshaft" tunnel into the side of the hill (below the freeway)."

Looks like that site shows the area being used at least back to 2006, even while CalTrans was working on the other side of the freeway. Indications of occasional use of the railroad culverts too, including in my pix. I wonder how many such beach bluff "camps" there are along our coast. Must be quite a job for the various agencies to address it.

Someone sent me this link to the CA Coastal Project helicopter aerial pix:
goo.gl/fcEzBL
If you copy and paste that link into a browser it should take you to the page comparing that area in the aerial surveys from different years.

I'm kind of impressed that they've found a way to make homes in such an awkward place. It appears to be pretty much out of everyone's way. I know, there could be problems with sanitation, etc. But still, good for them.

I say we force these people to get help and get back into society. I'm tired of paying for them to sit around a drink beer, do drugs and make forts on the side of the highway. These people are not down on their luck. Wake up folks, this homeless epidemic is about to get worse because we just sit around and watch it happen. I was born in SB and some of the homeless from when I was teen are still cruising around begging for cash for their vices. After 20 years I think they could have found a job by now. They gave up, why are we paying for it?